diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestRefUpdatedListener.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestRefUpdatedListener.java
index 88a614e..476f244 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestRefUpdatedListener.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestRefUpdatedListener.java
@@ -150,31 +150,6 @@
     }
   }
 
-  private static boolean hasDiff(
-      GitRepositoryManager repoManager, String repoName, String oldId, String newId, String path)
-      throws IOException {
-    if (oldId.equals(ObjectId.toString(null))) {
-      return true;
-    }
-
-    Project.NameKey projectName = new Project.NameKey(repoName);
-
-    try (Repository repo = repoManager.openRepository(projectName);
-        RevWalk rw = new RevWalk(repo)) {
-
-      RevCommit c1 = rw.parseCommit(ObjectId.fromString(oldId));
-      if (c1 == null) {
-        return true;
-      }
-      RevCommit c2 = rw.parseCommit(ObjectId.fromString(newId));
-
-      try (TreeWalk tw = TreeWalk.forPath(repo, path, c1.getTree().getId(), c2.getTree().getId())) {
-
-        return !tw.getObjectId(0).equals(tw.getObjectId(1));
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
   /*
      [superproject "submodules:refs/heads/nyc"]
         srcRepo = platforms/manifest
@@ -351,19 +326,6 @@
       }
 
       try {
-        if (!hasDiff(
-            repoManager,
-            event.getProjectName(),
-            event.getOldObjectId(),
-            event.getNewObjectId(),
-            c.xmlPath)) {
-          continue;
-        }
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-        log.error("ignoring hasDiff error for" + c.toString() + ":", e.toString());
-      }
-
-      try {
         update(c, event.getRefName());
       } catch (IOException | GitAPIException e) {
         // We are in an asynchronously called listener, so there is no user action
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestIT.java b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestIT.java
index 55b6104..770d0cc 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestIT.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/supermanifest/SuperManifestIT.java
@@ -283,9 +283,11 @@
             + "  srcRef = refs/heads/master\n"
             + "  srcPath = super.xml\n");
 
-    // trigger XML change to verify that it worked.
+    // Push a change to the source branch. We intentionally change the included XML file
+    // (rather than the one mentioned in srcPath), to double check that we don't try to be too
+    // smart about eliding nops.
     pushFactory
-        .create(db, admin.getIdent(), manifestRepo, "Subject", "super.xml", superXml + " ")
+        .create(db, admin.getIdent(), manifestRepo, "Subject", "default.xml", xml + " ")
         .to("refs/heads/master")
         .assertOkStatus();